PALATINE HILL - DOMUS TIBERIANA

Domus Tiberiana

The first truly unified palace built by an emperor is maybe that of Tiberius (14/37)

The area was covered in the sixteenth century by the Farnese Gardens. It is largely uncharted

Perhaps Tiberius built it over his birthplace. It included a library

It was probably the seat of the designated successor of the emperor when he was still alive, as Tiberius was the successor of Augustus

We know with certainty that Marcus Aurelius (161/180) and Lucius Verus (161/169) lived here when they were adopted and designated as successors of Antoninus Pius (138/161)

It was used as a residence by Pope John VII (705/707)

PALATINE HILL - St. BONAVENTURE

S. Bonaventura

1675/77 for Cardinal Francesco Barberini on a huge castellum aquae (building with the function of collection and distribution of water) that was intended to supply the Severan Baths

The cardinal supported the reformist Franciscan friar Bonaventure of Barcelona, later canonized, who wanted to build the church here

Today the convent adjacent to the church is the seat of the Centre for Youth Ministry in the Roman Province of the Franciscan Minor Friars

FAÇADE and INTERIOR redone in the years 1839/40

COUNTER FAÇADE

“Tombstone of the painter Francesco Mancini (1679/1758)” 1758 with his portrait

1^st ALTAR ON THE RIGHT

“Crucifixion with the Madonna, St. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene” about 1678 by G.B. Beinaschi (1638/88)

2^nd ALTAR ON THE RIGHT

“Madonna and Child, St. Anne, St. Joseph and Spanish Franciscan saints” 1680 by Giacinto Calandrucci (1646/1707) a pupil of Carlo Maratta

MAIN ALTAR

“Virgin Mary and the three Franciscan Orders” about 1685 by Filippo Micheli from Camerino

Beneath the altar there is the tomb of S. Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, who died in 1751 in a nearby convent and gave great impetus to the devotion of the Christian martyrs of the Colosseum and to the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) which was very popular since then

He was one of the greatest inventors and propagators of the Stations of the Cross personally creating some hundreds of them. He built the aediculae outside the church, in clay since 1772, and in the Colosseum, later removed

AT THE SIDES OF THE ALTAR

Niches on the right “St. Anthony of Padua” 1867 and on the left “St. Francis”1869 Pietro da Copenaghen

2^nd ALTAR ON THE LEFT

“Annunciation” about 1678 by G.B. Beinaschi

1^st ALTAR ON THE LEFT

“St. Michael the Archangel” about 1678 by G.B. Beinaschi who was assisted in the four paintings in this church by his daughter Angela Maria Beinaschi

SACRISTY

“Deposition” about 1678 by G.B. Beinaschi signed also by his daughter Angela Maria

“Virgin Mary with Sts. Francis and Anthony of Padua” 1862 by Pietro da Copenaghen

CONVENT

“Our Lady of Beautiful Love” by Sebastiano Conca (1680/1764)

“St. Anthony” by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)

“Virgin Mary and St. Bonaventure” by Pietro Gagliardi (1809/90)

“Lady of the Sacred Heart Jesus” 1766 by Pompeo Batoni (1708/87) donated by the painter to the missionary priest of the convent to take with him on his missions

PALATINE HILL - PUBLIC AND REPRESENTATIVE AREA OF THE EMPEROR'S PALACE - DOMUS FLAVIA

Built for Domitian (81/96) between 81 and 96 by the architect Rabirius, occupying the whole central part of the Palatine Hill

It was built entirely in concrete covered with bricks and fronted on the west side by a colonnade of cipolin marble, later replaced by brick pillars, which also had to continue on the north side where the main entrance was

It was the public and representative wing of the Imperial Palace, the private wing was the Domus Augustana

Three series of rooms arranged on three sides of a rectangular peristyle, surrounded by a portico with columns of Numidian marble and with a central octagonal fountain

At the center of the north side there is a huge room known as AULA REGIA (royal hall) where the emperor, seated on a throne in the semicircular apse at the opposite side of the entrance, used to receive and give audience

The room (30.5 x 38.7 m - 100 x 127 feet) had also marble columns covered with colored marble and with niches for statues

The roof was probably slanted (i.e. inclined towards the outside, sending rain water toward the outer walls) with wooden coffered ceiling

On the sides of the Aula Regia there were two smaller rooms:

The west one known as BASILICA, built on the former Aula Isiaca (House of Isis), rectangular, with apse and divided into three naves by a double row of columns in yellow marble from Tunisia and maybe an auditorium for meetings of the Imperial Board

The one on the east, called erroneously LARARIUM, built on the House of the Griffins, was perhaps the seat of the Praetorian Guard

On the west side of the peristyle there is a wing of connection between the two main areas of the palace, formed by an octagonal room with four apses and two side rooms symmetrical and elliptical

To the south there is a large hall with an apse at the center paved with polychrome and set on a “vespaio” (crawl space) where in the cold months hot air was circulating, identified as the TRICLINIUM and cited in sources with the name of COENATIO JOVIS

The room had a semicircular apse elevated on a step and had the sides opened with large windows over two symmetrical nymphea with monumental oval fountains

HALL OF ISIS

Located under the so-called BASILICA in the west part of the Domus Flavia

Rectangular room only partially preserved with the short apsidal added later on, relevant to a stately home of the Republican period

Its name derives from the many decorative motifs referring to the Egyptian cult of Isis and Serapis, as the garland of roses on the net, the lotus, the serpent with flat body

The paintings date to about 30/25 BC and are considered to be an example of advanced second Pompeian style

The paintings are now kept in a room in the Loggia Mattei in the Domus Augustana area

HOUSE OF THE GRIFFINS

Under the so-called LARARIUM in the east of the Domus Flavia is the most interesting republican house found in Rome, called “of the Griffins” for the stucco decoration of one lunette

The paintings are dated to late second or early first century BC (the house was older) and are the oldest of the second Pompeian style extant in the world with illusionistic representation of columns that are detached from the walls even if they don't open to prospective backgrounds as in the second advanced style

It is present here again the structure of a wall in blocks that in the first style was made of stucco

The more complete paintings are now in a deposit adjacent to the Palatine Museum and in-situ there are less complete walls, the lunette with griffins and some mosaics

One of these mosaics has a small central square area with stones and colorful marbles: it's the floor known as scutulatum which is also to be found in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome and in the House of the Faun in Pompeii

STRUCTURES BUILT IN CONCRETE AND BRICKS

At the side of the complex of S. Bonaventure are the remains of a construction in concrete covered with bricks: it might be a nympheum (fountain) or a building for the water distribution system

PALATINE HILL

PALATINO

Via di S. Gregorio 30

51 m (167 feet) above sea level

It was the most suitable place for the creation of a settlement to control the area below, the so called Forum Boarium, important market near the river port

There are remains of artifacts dating back to the middle Paleolithic (100.000/35.000 BC) proving the human presence in prehistoric times although the first settlement dates from the late Bronze Age (1.300/1.200 BC)

The first urbanization took place in the early Iron Age (800/700 BC) on the top of Germalus, the place where tradition has placed the house of Romulus and in accordance with the chronological Varronian tradition locating here the foundation of Rome sixteen generations after the Trojan war, i.e. in 754/753 BC

With urbanization one refers to:

1) Agricultural increase with surpluses

2) Early secondary and tertiary activities

3) Contacts with the contemporary Greek colonization in Ischia and Cumae

The day of the foundation, April 21, was the same of the feast for the ancient cult of Pales, Italic goddess of flocks and shepherds, which would give rise to the name of the hill, Palatium

The ROMA QUADRATA (Square Rome) mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Dio, Solinus and Festo included Palatine and Germalus excluding the Velia

Tacitus gives some indication of the primitive enclosure of the city, under which it is possible to hypothesize the following route, along approximately 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles):

From S. Anastasia, along the south side of the Palatine to St. Gregory, then bend toward the Arch of Constantine, then to the Arch of Titus and S. Francesca Romana then to rejoin the track's Via San Teodoro and down the Velabro again until S. Anastasia

The ends were marked by altars:

The High Altar of Hercules in the Forum Boarium

The Altar of Consus in the valley of the Circus Maximus

The Sanctuary of the Lares at the foot of the Velia

The Curiae Veteres at the northwest corner of Palatine Hill

The hill was always a favorite place for the rich homes of notables. Among the ones who lived here in the late Republican period Marco Emilio Scaurus, Crassus, Cicero, the triumvir Mark Antony and then Augustus (27 BC/14)

His choice was followed by his successors, especially Nero (54/68), Domitian (81/96) with his architect Rabirius, Septimius Severus (193/211) and Elagabalus (218/222)

A single large complex was built called PALATIUM (the Palace) from the name of the hill and not viceversa

It was the seat of Gothic kings (as Theodoric), Byzantines exarchs, popes and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, until Otto III (983/1002)

Then there was complete abandonment and reuse of churches, convents, houses, towers and fortresses (Frangipane family)

 
In 1542 most of the hill was transformed by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73) by order of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in the VILLA DEGLI ORTI FANESIANI (Villa Farnese Gardens) which was a botanical garden, with new plants such as the acacia farnesiana